Ok, I just straightened out my "gauges not working" problem. It was a blown fuse which I had over looked . But now I have a new problem. When I replaced the fuse, the SES light and gauges came on but then went out. I go to check the fuse, sure enough, it's blown. Why is my gauge fuse blowing? Here's a little more backround. I just rebuilt the motor. It had a 10 amp fuse which was working until as long as I can remember. When I replaced it I didn't have a 10 so I used 15 and it blew that too. What can I do? Also I just found that my temp sensor (not CTS) is not connected, could that be causing this? I'm having trouble hooking it back up too. The wire has seperaed completely from the sensor...do I need a new one?

 

means your probably grounding somewhere.. i suggest you get that wire fixed... and check to see if your using the proper fuse for that... it may need a 20amp or higher.

 

The fuse is supposed to be 10 amps, that much I know.

 

You definitly have a short somewhere. Get the connetor fixed as stated before and check again. if it still blows then you will need to look at all areas where of your car where you worked. When does the fuse blow: when lights are turned on or when you turn key foward? Do you a multimeter? These work great in finding shorts in wires. You need to check for continuity(sp) in different ares of a wire

 

Yeah, I'm going to fix the connector soon, I just got one from a junk yard. The fuse blew when I turned the key to the on position. The headlights and all that stuff still function independently. It's just the gauges that don't work. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

Well, I fixed the connector and the damn fuse still blows. Any more ideas of where I can look?

 

I'm going off memory here but try looking at the tach signal wire coming from the distributor (ign module IIRC). If you have a wiring diagram handy it should show you what color wire it is. It could be grounding out near the firewall or on something else. Or if the wiring looks chewed up it could give you too much resistance. That would cause your gage fuse to blow, and then give you an SES light 'cause you no longer have a VSS input. And then your torque converter will not lock up.

The reason I think it's that wire...I had a similar problem after I swapped trannies. My gage fuse would blow when I would floor it and/or when I ran over some bumps (like railroad tracks). Looking at a wiring diagram that wire seems like it would be the culprit. I inspected all the distributor wiring, looked fine. I guess all that moving around of the dist wiring when I was inspecting "fixed" it 'cause I was no longer blowing fuses.

 

My car is an 85, I don't have VSS. But I think I will take your advice anyway and pull the cluster.

 

hey irocnroll, if your still having the same problem, check your cruise control wiring, that same problem happend to my car awhile back, some of the gauges didnt work and everytime i put a new fuse in it just popped, it happend to be a bad wire in the cruise control module

 

Bringing this back from the dead. Sorry for the dumb question, but how do I check the wires with a multimeter. I have one, but just really don't know enough about electronics to know how to use it.

 

Sorry, don't know. I bought a multimeter a while back. Wasted my money since I have NO idea how to use it. I hate electric stuff. I can fix anything in an engine that needs to be fixed. It it's mechanical, I can fix it. But if there's a lightbulb not working, it'll take me a week to figure out why. Matt

 

im chasing down the exact same problem right now. let me guess, when your lights are on that little annoying buzzer still goes off with the key in the on position right? another thread suggested that it was the EGR wires grounding out. dont know what this has to do with anything, but taping them off seemed to fix it for the time being.

good luck